Cardiac arrest is a life-threatening medical condition that may be treated with external defibrillation. External defibrillation includes applying electrodes to the patient's chest to deliver an electric shock to the patient in order to depolarize the patient's heart and restore normal sinus rhythm. The chance that a patient's heart can be successfully defibrillated increase significantly if a defibrillation pulse is applied quickly.
Until recently, individuals such as paramedics, emergency medical technicians, police officers and others trained in defibrillation techniques used defibrillators, but the general public did not. In some cases, the patient's need is urgent and the patient cannot wait for trained personnel to arrive. In recognition of the need for prompt treatment, automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are becoming more commonplace, and are available in venues such as health clubs and auditoriums. In some large venues, such as office buildings, factories, airports and sports arenas, several AEDs may be deployed throughout the venue. In some venues, hundreds of AEDs may be deployed. Ready availability of AEDs may mean that patients may get needed treatment promptly, and need not wait for emergency personnel to arrive. As a result, more lives may be saved.
As part of ordinary security and maintenance procedures, AEDs deployed in a venue may be periodically checked. It is important for the devices to be able to provide therapy in time of need. Checking the devices from time to time helps keep the devices ready provide therapy, by investigating whether the electrodes are in good condition, whether the batteries are charged, and so forth. A responsible person, such as security personnel or a repair person, may be assigned to make an inspection of each AED and to confirm that the device is operational or place the device in an operational condition. The inspection may be relatively simple, because many AEDs perform one or more automatic self-diagnostic routines and provide one or more status indications that the device is operational or in need of service.
As part of the inspection, the responsible person should regularly look at each AED and check the associated status indicators. The responsible person may also be required to prepare and maintain records showing that the inspections have been performed, as well as the status and repair history of the AEDs. In a venue having several AEDs, the cost of inspection may be significant. A deployed AED may be unprepared to provide defibrillation therapy if the responsible person fails to make a proper inspection. In addition, a deployed AED may be unprepared to provide defibrillation therapy if a fault or other problem occurs following an inspection.
Because AEDs may be deployed in venues accessible to the public, AEDs may be prone to mischief or misuse. Theft, inadvertent or inappropriate use, tampering, vandalism and the like may be important concerns. Because of these concerns, AEDs may be deployed with a docking station that deters mischief or misuse. An example of such a docking station is a wall-mounted cabinet with a glass window and an alarm system. The alarm may be triggered when the door of the cabinet is opened or if the AED is removed. Not only does the alarm deter mischief, the alarm also helps summon responding personnel to the site of an emergency.
Many of the concerns applicable to AEDs may be applicable to other emergency medical devices as well. For example, there may be benefits associated with deploying medical devices such as a stroke apparatus, a chest compression device, or a first aid device, throughout a venue. These medical devices, like AEDs, may be inspected as part of ordinary security and maintenance procedures. To deter mischief or misuse, the medical devices may be deployed with docking stations.